The present disclosure relates to a vehicle, e.g. of the scooter type. A particular application for the disclosure lies in open-air leisure activity or for medium or long distance travel, in particular in an urban environment.
Numerous examples of vehicles are known, such as skateboards or scooters, that are suitable for these various applications.
In order to make them easier to use, in particular for users whose sense of balance may be poorly developed, such as children, there exist scooters that comprise: a deck having a support plane for supporting a user; a steering assembly having a steering column with a first axis; and nose gear having two wheels. In such scooters, the steering column is mounted to pivot relative to the deck about a first axis, with the first axis and the support plane forming a first angle. The nose gear is mounted to pivot relative to the deck about a second axis. The steering column is arranged in such a manner that pivoting the steering column about the first axis causes the nose gear to pivot about the second axis.
Usually, the first and second axes coincide and are substantially perpendicular to the support plane of the deck, which makes the scooter difficult to use, is not very intuitive, and is relatively unstable.
The user is then positioned close to the steering column, generally close to the front end of the deck, and runs the risk of falling off the deck when the path followed by the scooter is changed suddenly, e.g. if one of the wheels comes into contact with a stone or the curb of a sidewalk.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,511,083 describes a skateboard in which the first axis and the second axis slope relative to each other so as to define a second angle.
Nevertheless, in the skateboard described by that document, the steering assembly is configured in such a manner that the first angle can be changed by the user while using the skateboard for the purpose of changing the position of the steering assembly so as to enable the user to vary the position of the center of gravity, e.g. in order to perform acrobatic stunts.
That ability to modify the first angle makes the vehicle particularly unstable in use, and thus unsuitable for users whose sense of balance is poorly developed.